Enter Shadow
by Dark Memory
Summary: Complete. The only plan left is a desperate last resort. Will Dante be forced to run from his dark side and become just like the Doppelganger?
1. Enter Shadow

Summon Suffering

An earthquake sets Dante temporarily off balance. The surrounding enemies take advantage of this situation; all fail horribly. After clearing the opposing swarms, he took a breath and thought of the current situation. Lady was waiting in the library, resting after their most recent "display of affection," and was putting all of her hope in Dante. Not too much a burden; their goals were practically the same.

To the extent of Dante's knowledge, Vergil had fallen into a deep crevasse after Arkham had revealed the depth of his current power. And now, he stood atop the Temen-Ni-Gru, gathering the power of the legendary Dark Knight, Sparda.

Navigating the tower proved to be more difficult than previously. Dante now had to work around the new center platform that had risen high above the rest of the tower. This required Dante to actually "move" the tower, carefully keeping track of his directions.

At last, the top was in sight. No time to reminisce about his last standoff here. There was a new sight here; a ball of distortion that didn't quite seem to lead anywhere. Dante used the power of logic. Dante looked up at the gaping portal of chaos in the sky where Arkham was probably waiting; same color.

"Well, hey, if they're the same color, they gotta be connected right?"

Okay, so it wasn't the_ best_of logic, but it was a start.

Dante entered the realm of this shadow. He gazed at his new, unfamiliar surroundings; a domed room, with hardly any light. The only visible sources were these metallic spheres in the wall that reminded him of demonic eyeballs that let light gleam through. There was another thing that Dante realized; no exit.

Suddenly, the light fixtures around him began to pulsate on and off in rhythmic patters that were dizzying. And then, utter darkness. Pure silence heightened Dante's senses. But it wasn't as dark as it seemed. One light fixture remained shining, casting Dante's shadow far ahead of him.

Rebellion made its way to the front guard. If anything was to attack suddenly, their movement would give them away. There was more than enough time to dodge and counter an attack from any angle, even one from above. Frantically, Dante began to circle the room along the outside edge.

After making a full rotation around the room, Dante realized something very odd. His shadow had split ways with him a few minutes ago. In fact, his shadow remained fixed in the same position even after Dante had walked away.

The shadow started to morph into a physical form. Tall and with large, demonic horns, the image of Sparda stood face-to-face with his son.

"_How touching… And just when I was starting to think this room was pointless!"_

The shadow laughed a deep and dark laugh that struck fear even into Dante. It truly did sound like Sparda. And the resemblance was uncanny.

"_You want to throw me off? You missed you're chance! You should have appeared like this in the first place; not make yourself known first. Now I know exactly what you are. You have no chance of victory."_

"Catch you off guard?" The voice had changed. And the shape went long with it. It was a calmer, more serene voice; a soft, beautiful voice that brought Dante to his knees.

Dante peered up from the ground up at his mother. He knew it wasn't her, but the pain was there. He felt the anger swelling in him.

"**Ha!" **The image shifted into Vergil, and quickly performed a sliding slash. Dante couldn't dodge fast enough from the dead weight position of being on his knees. The Doppelganger laughed again at the bleeding half-demon.

The attack wasn't all that damaging to Dante's body as it was his ego. The demon **had **in fact caught him off guard. Now, he would have to slaughter it. He had to make sure that it was absolutely obvious who the stronger combatant was.

Dante bolted backwards into a run and sprung up a wall. At the highest point of his wall run, he began his attack fire from Ebony and Ivory, and continued until his descent. The bullets bore holes in the creature's body. Where blood should have been spilt, there was a dark black smoke that encompassed the wound. Within a few seconds, the hole was no more.

"_O…k… Let's try something else…"_

The cold breath of the wind greeted one of Dante's hands, the fiery breath of destruction from the other. Agni and Rudra sliced through the air with molten hisses. Breaking into a run, Dante began to furiously swing the swords at the Doppelganger like a madman. Slices quickly filled themselves in, leaving no trace of injury.

One last idea came to Dante. He once again took out his trusty sword Rebellion. He gathered a large amount of energy into the attack and took ample time to aim it. When the Doppelganger broke into a charge, Dante released his Stinger thrust hard, directly into the beast's heart.

Or what should have been its heart. Instead the sword's blade passed right through the enemy's body. But this time, the wound healed with the sword inside and Dante was unable to free Rebellion.

The Doppelganger's faced melted away. The smoke cleared to reveal the silhouette of Lady. It began to scream with pain. The sword deep in Lady's heart; it wasn't real, but the vision was still just too realistic to be ignored. In the split second Dante reacted to the vision, the Sparda look-alike swung his mighty sword at Dante.

"_Once was bad enough."_ Dante's chest was just grazed by the sword, and dashed backward. And while Dante's body was mid-air and mid-dash, a portal of darkness spewed shadow refuse from below, knocking him high into the air. Just how many things could this thing do?

Dante spent some time in the chamber dodging attacks, eventually slipping up slightly, and then paying the consequences for it. It took him nearly an hour of futile attacks to even fathom the significance of the single light in the room…


	2. Fade

Fade

Dante looked around him at the lights that had been blackened. The "eyelids" of steel had closed upon them, shutting them out. He did not know what would happen if he turned the light back on; it could damage the Doppelganger, or it could produce a twin from Dante's dark silhouette. But he wasn't getting anywhere as things stood now, so he decided on taking the chance.

He ran to the nearest caged wall fixture and began hacking away at it. Every slash, he could feel the steel beginning to lose its holding, until finally the plate retracted into the wall and that part of the room shone brightly again.

The Doppelganger, already in a mad rush towards Dante, stumbled to a stop just outside the range of the light. So this was his weakness after all; Dante had called it right. It remained firmly in the darkness of the other side of the room. Secluded in safety, it began to use all sorts of tactics to lore Dante out of the light. Insults from his brother, screaming agony from his mother; all failed. Now that Dante knew he could win, he wasn't going to slip up.

The shadow began to near the edge of the light and seemed to perform a meticulous dance just on the edge. It was so close. And this was enough to attract Dante, who began to approach the creature and stood face-to-face with it. It swung its sword at Dante from within the darkness, but when its arm passed over into the light, it became solid. The light made it physical; the light made it damageable.

"_What are you waiting for? I'm right here!"_ The monster knew better than to attack now. He had lost the advantage. But he still knew one thing Dante didn't, and began to laugh.

The monster flashed its glowing red eyes, and suddenly the light behind Dante was extinguished. He spun around to see where his light had gone. The steel had come back down upon it.

"_So these things are timed now, huh?"_

He turned back around to face his adversary, who was now nowhere in sight. Then, a stab to the back. Dante fell to the ground. The playing field was once again leveled, even unfair. Avoiding a powerful downward strike, Dante rolled away from the creature and ran towards another light fixture.

Dante thought it weird that the creature did not chase him. Instead, it had let Dante free another segment of brightness. The creature once again towed the line that separated good and evil, darkness and light. Dante stayed where he was this time.

The demon began to shake violently. Its feet began to melt into the ground and grow to form a large pool of chaos. The large shadow lifted itself in the air, now as a giant floating ball of distortion. It hovered ominously between the two combatants. Dante lifted his sword in a guard stance, unsure of what was about to happen.

Suddenly, the Doppelganger thrust his sword into the distortion, and it bolted across the room. Dante had seen this coming from a mile away and easily dodged it. But the ball hit its target dead center; the light, which went out immediately after.

Dante ran as back as fast as he could to break the barrier blocking the light again, but to no avail. The creature reached it firstand thrusthis sword into Dante's left arm. The wound was painful, but not paralyzing, and with some pain, he could still move it.

"_I have to give you credit; you're definitely not as dumb as the rest of them in this damn place…"_

"I learned **that** little technique from watching your brother… I'm glad you liked my little shadow version." He had said it while in Vergil's appearance.

"_You were watching my brother to learn all your moves? You're nothing but a lame poser."_

"**Poser?** I'm a doppelganger... But that doesn't mean I'm not at all original. How about I show you a technique I developed on my own?"

"_Yea' how 'bout you…"_

The creature leapt high into the air and was coming down right on top of Dante; its sword saluting the floor. Dante switched weapons to his powerful gauntlets and jumped into the air as well. Mid-air, the creature seemed defenseless, and Dante let loose a powerful diving kick. But when his leg connected, his body went right through the creature's body, which evaporated around him. He had just passed through a shadow for the first time. The pressure was hard on his lungs.

Dante landed on his feet. But the monster was again nowhere to be seen. Dante checked in all directions; every way but down. A surge of dark energy sprung up beneath him like a geyser of emptiness, and Dante was knocked high into the air. The creature then juggled Dante's body with a series of deadly rushes.

When Dante finally fell, he cursed at his own stupidity. He was once again close to the middle of the room with no sort of protection. He was as exposed as ever. He began to crawl towards the side of the room, but the creature swiftly chased after him.

The creature was about three feet away from Dante, when a loud shotgun blast cracked open a plate in the wall, shining light on Dante, the creature, and the battle itself. The creature stumbled back and fell to the lit ground. Dante unsheathed Rebellion from his back strap and drove it through the Doppelganger's leg. The blade passed all the way out the other side, and lodged itself in the ground.

The tide had turned; the spawn of the darkness was now pegged facedown in the light. Not wanting to accidentally free the monster with a barrage of sword attacks, Dante walked over to the creatures head and pressed the chambers of Ebony and Ivory to its head.

"_Can you bleed?"_

The shots were more than effective. But they were not alone either. Many shots, easily a hundred, in twenty seconds, intruded the creatures head. Dante had ceased to let up.

The creature produced a large sword of shadow and pointed it at Dante. It made Dante take a step back. But it did not swing it at him. Instead, it twisted its body around and cut off its own leg, freeing it from enslavement.

The dying creature made one last struggle to reach the other side of the room, where surely safety would await him. Dante walked along with the pitiful, crawling Doppelganger the whole way. He dismembered the other leg and severed one of its arms. At the same time, bullets had rendered the creatures other arm numb. The battle was truly over.

Dante lifted the creature up and carried him a foot above the ground, mere inches away from the darkness. He gave the creature one last look at his last hope; brought him just close enough to serenity, and in a second, it was all gone.

"_Return to where you came from shadow."_

"You have yet to realize the depth of your own shadow, Dante."

And with those last words, Dante beheaded his foe.

_"Fade_..."


	3. Merge

Merge

"My entire purpose for life… is only to return to my home."

Dante stood before the corpse of his enemy. It had been a long and difficult battle; one that seemed almost meaningless, as there was no prize to be won. It was only a hindrance. It was only something else to stall him on the way to the top of the Temen-ni-gru, where he would find his most powerful adversary.

Dante had yet to learn that even the most powerful creatures in the world have a shadow; one that they can never fully escape.

He still wondered how he would escape from this room without doors. He picked up the skull of the Doppelganger and began to spin it on his fingertip like a ball. After a few minutes, all of the lights suddenly went out with a flash, and a large cyclone of energy appeared in the center of the room; the exit.

"_So this is really it for us, huh? What a waste of time…"_

Dante carelessly tossed the skull over his shoulder and began to walk toward the warp point. The bright light of the teleporter created a dark aura around Dante; a large shadow cast off behind him into the darkness. His gazed followed the colossal silhouette all the way to its final destination. The catalyst was the decapitated skull of the former adversary. It absorbed all of the emptiness in the room.

This created a nauseating effect, in which it felt as though all matter was being sucked into the skull. Dante felt his very soul tearing at his insides in an effort to burst out. The pain was more than he had ever experienced. No wound ever inflicted was this deep inside. He closed his eyes tightly and lay on the ground motionless, trying to keep himself from going insane from the pain.

However, he was still alive when the tension ceased. He was sweating profusely and felt very cold. The dizziness still had not gone away. He stood up as straight as he could without stumbling over and wiped his forehead. When he had finally gained his bearings again, he opened his eyes.

"_Is this… purity?"_

Absolute nothingness was all that remained. Everything was gone. Existence, as Dante had come to know it, had vanished. He was in a white world of emptiness; a bottomless, endless void with no direction. All the darkness in the room had been absorbed, but there was one thing that remained, staring at Dante from within the heavenly arena; the glaring Doppelganger head, now pitch black.

"_If this is what it means to have purity, I don't want it… This is nothing. And that means life would be denied… What's the point of a perfect world if no one can be a part of it?"_

It was clear even to a half-demon the significance and preciousness of life; "existence" isn't quite enough. So there was only one thing left to do in order to restore order to this place. Dante walked over to the midnight skull and fired a shotgun shell into it.

…But nothing happened. It ricocheted off the surface, and spiraled endless into the pure realm. Then, a voice called out. It was barely audible, but Dante could make out the slow faint words:

"L…e…t… G…o…"

"_Let go, huh?"_

Dante brought forth his true colors; his bright red demonic form. As if it was using the transformation as an ignition, the skull burst into flames almost immediately after. It rumbled and shook on the ground, and the heat it gave off was tremendous. Dante let Rebellion get the first blow; a diagonal slash.

The skull reacted to the attack quite strangely. At first, it merely stopped rumbling. Then, its flame went out. And for a long time, nothing else happened. Dante wondered whether he should take another strike, but he noticed that his slash was slowly darkening. It became more and more red as the seconds rolled past, until finally, it ruptured open.

Out of the small fissure, darkness spewed up and out into the air. The skull was levitated amongst the black cloud of darkness. It spoke to Dante:

"You did attack. It would seem that you have come to realize the significance of shadow as well as purity. They are balanced and coexistent; one cannot have one without the other. To purge of darkness through purity is impossible, even in a seemingly perfect world. Now that you have learned this lesson, it would seem that a test of spirit is in order, to see if you truly are worthy of the power and wisdom I can give you."

The smoke began to swirl around Dante menacingly. He swung his sword at the skull in random flurries, but it did no good. When Dante had finally worn out, the cloud became heavily concentrated into a very small ball and entered Dante's mouth. He could feel the shadow travel down his body. It made him feel as though his throat was dying.

It pulsed through his body violently. His eyes bulged out, as he was lifted off his feet. He lay across the "floor" horizontally, with many spasms. His muscles contracted and released painfully. Then, his body was smashed up against a wall that did not even seem to be visible. Thankfully, Dante had gone into shock before this happened.

Dante lay on the ground motionless; for how long, nobody knew. When he awoke, he was gasping for breath.

"_What the hell did you **do to me**?"_

His answer was a painful shock to his central nervous system. His torso flung up into the air in a massive reflex. It then proceeded to dance around the white emptiness, as if some internal marionette had gained control of his body.

"_Damn… possession? What, you can't fight fairly?"_

The voice came from within. He could hear it in his head.

"Not possession, Dante. Think of it more as a **Merge.** I have become one with you; nay, your spirit. My essence has become a critical part of your essence."

"_A merge huh? Then why do you have more control over what I do?"_

"That, my dear host, is a bit more complicated. You see, you have a very domineering aura, as do I. But mine has suffered the pain of defeat that you so cruelly dealt me before. It seems that our souls are battling it out on some distant, internal plane within you, in an effort to find out who is more powerful; a war of dominance between our very shadows if you will."

"_Yeah, that's nice. Just tell me how the hell I stop it."_

"You cannot **stop** it, as there is no escaping your own shadow. Your only hope is to find that place within you and do battle. You must find out whose shadow has more potential; who can find the tiniest bit of light, even in its absence."

"_Find light in its absence?"_

"Yes… It is a very difficult thing to do. Do you feel ready to accomplish this?"

Dante looked down, and then quickly hacked the air with Rebellion. He leapt into the air and came down hard in his demonic form; all just a little warm-up.

"_Okay. Bring it on!"_


	4. Pure Intent

Pure Intent

"You will believe what you see, because to you, the visions will be your reality. You will feel the pain and it will not end."

"_Yeah, that's nice. Whatever. You ready?"_

"I cannot wait to hear you screaming out in…"

"_Just shut up already! God, I **hate** it when someone talks more than me…"_

Soon, pain interrupted Dante's breathing. He fell to his knees and gasped for breath, but it would not come. After a few minutes, he passed out. His eyes began to slowly roll back into his head, and his view of the clear void began to fade to black.

­­­­­­­­

The eyelids peeled back, but it made no difference; everything was still empty. Absolute darkness greeted his gaze. Absolute darkness greeted his tightly shut eyes; it made no difference. He felt unbalanced and distorted; he was not even sure whether or not he was truly awake.

Where had the light gone? Where was all the bewildering brightness he had long despised? It was all gone. Gone was the void of purity, replaced by a dark abyss of despair.

Dante struggled to move his limp arms, but realized he was chained down by the waists and ankles. He could not see, but could sense the presence of others near him. He could fell the lightness of the easily breakable chains, but he was cautious. The voice of his newly acquainted shadow friend gave him counsel.

"These chains withhold your coming fate, eager for you to press on. Beyond enslavement lies only destruction, but ultimately the goal is freedom. It will be painful. It is not too late to back out…"

Dante once again went into his demonic state and broke free of his chains. When the bindings fell to the floor, a small flame appeared on the ground. The flame burned strongly, but not very brightly. It revealed such a small portion of the room that Dante could still only see his feet. Then Dante noticed that very small creatures were gathering near his feet. He stepped on a couple, and the fire grew slightly stronger. The difference in lighting was still minimal.

"This is your soul's room. These creatures are your shadow… You cannot escape your shadow, but the more you rebel against it, the closer you will be to your freedom. They are eager for change in this world of constant darkness. They want their freedom as well, and they will grow more powerful with the new light you feed them. The task only grows harder, as does the darkness grow stronger. Fight Dante!"

So far this was a joke. The creatures were so small. Dante could easily crush three or four for every stomp. But the flame was growing larger with every kill, until finally these insect-like shadows were as large as his feet.

He started to use his shotgun to blast away the swarms. The joke was becoming less and less funny. The flame was chest height. The enemies grew human-like legs and now wielded dark scythes. They were comparable to the rest of the Temen-ni-gru enemies.

Dante had fun with this type of shadow. He killed many quickly. After killing nearly a hundred of them, the flame, which had now become a bonfire, was as tall as him. It dimly lit up the entirety of the chamber. The room resembled a mausoleum, but it was greatly larger than average. At the far end of the room, a black stone coffin lay vertically against a wall with two unlit candelabras on either side.

The absence of enemies had been enough to show Dante that something powerful still lingered. With Dante's gaze on the coffin, the flame behind him went out. He spun around to see what had put out the fire, only to find out that it still stood burning brightly. Did he imagine it?

No, it happened again, but this time Dante saw what had happened; a haze of darkness encircled the flame, blocking out the light, but it didn't put out the light.

"It needs the light… I need the light. All your trials have led up to this moment. Are you ready to face me? No, we are one now… Are you ready to face us?"

There was no need to answer. Dante felt his soul trying to escape once again, but the pain ended quickly as a cloud of black smoke rushed out of his through his nostrils. It became one with the dark fog and they formed a physical entity. It was knelt down on its right knee. Clad all in bright, blood-stained garments and platinum shining hair, it ominously waited. Pale hands reached onto its back and withdrew a large sword; Rebellion.

"Here it comes Dante… Show me the strength of your light!" The creature rolled back and jumped onto the wall. It quickly released to blazing guns that fired three bullets each at Dante. Two of them were dodged and the third was deflected back with the back end of Rebellion. It soared through the air and hit the creature in the middle of the forehead. It looked up and Dante caught side of his adversary in the light for the first time.

"_A mirror image?"_

"**Yes, Dante… Meet your shadow!"**

The shadow Dante licked the top of its bleeding forehead in a swift motion, its head spun round on its neck and it released a demonic cackle.

"_This was… is… somewhere inside me?"_

The creature proved impervious to all typed of attacks. After many failed attempts at causing any damage to his reflection, he focused on dodging. The creature's laughter kept growing louder… it mocked Dante for his weakness.

"**Stop running… where do you plan to go? Always running from this side of you throughout your entire life… there is no where else to go to! You cannot escape from your shadow. Stop running and conquer."**

The words were condescending but overall sincere. It was meant as advice. Advice from the Doppelganger soul, from one warrior to another. Dante wondered why the Doppelganger was putting him through all this… Perhaps it had been in this situation before and learned the hard way. Perhaps it had once faced its own shadow and ran; became consumed by the darkness. It can be so comforting at times…

"_I won't end up like you."_

"**Ah, so you finally understand my devices… will it help you?"**

"_Okay baby, let's rock!"_

Dante rushed across the room dodging the creature's bullets. While running, he unsleeved his arms and removed his jacket. Quickly he tore off a piece and waved it into the fire, creating a mini sort of torch. He released it at the other Dante from his soul and the results were as expected; the creature became solid until he escaped the light of the flame. He became exposed; vulnerable.

The plan was set and the trap laid…


	5. Crush

This final chapter is dedicated to Celena Schezar and Rikku142, this story's faithful fans.

Crush

All that was left to do is hope for the best. Nothing else seemed to work, so Dante welcomed any last resort. He swung his jacket into the fire and set it ablaze. Dante ran with the blazing inferno to the other side of the room. The evil Dante chased him all the way, keeping distant. It was hesitant of the flame.

Dante quickly opened the coffin and stepped inside. Leaving the door opened, he placed the flaming jacket on the floor inside the coffin, and the coffin was set ablaze as well. Dante could feel the intense heat of the fire all around him and his arm was beginning to burn, but he didn't care. This was his only chance.

The Doppelganger Dante also recognized this as its final opportunity to end the fight. It got on hands and knees and inhumanly crawled toward the coffin. Finally, it leapt into the air in a charge against Dante.

"…_Let this work…"_

Dante raised his hand and slowed his surroundings to a dismal pace. Even the flame grew cold from its like of movement, but thankfully it did not go out. He stepped out of the coffin slowly and stood by the coffin door. He watched his reflection hurtle through the air at the most minimal pace into the coffin. He saw the creature hit the back of the coffin, and saw a slow look of confusion come across its face. Then, Dante slammed the door shut on it, and thrust Rebellion deep into the coffin, until it pierced both the Doppelganger and the back wall, locking it inside.

"_Gotta love Quicksilver mode, baby…"_

The end approached. The blazing coffin brought the shadow creature into its physical form; a form where pain was very real. He could hear his own screams coming from inside. He could see the blood begin to drip out from a crack in the bottom. It was nearing the end of its existence.

"**No… this shadow is yours… It is very much a part of you!"**

The voice was the envoy of a pain that crept into Dante's body; the pain of his adversary, the pain of his shadow. He could feel himself on fire, even though the flames were nowhere near him. Then he could feel the coldness of death. The creature in the coffin was beginning to die.

The feeling started as just a cold tingling that rose up into his spine. It grew into a freezing tempest that brought him down. It felt as though the very force of gravity had betrayed him.

"**This is how shadows die, Dante… Let it crush you."**

Dante's face was pressed firmly against the floor. It should've gone through, but its surface was too solid. How much more could his body be forced to take? Did the creature in the coffin feel this as well? No, for him it was worse, as he was probably confined to an even more painful position… He felt his teeth begin to shatter; his toes, one by one, began to snap into the floor.

"**Let it crush you! Let your soul become a shadow! Only through the death of your pain can power be achieved…"**

Dante's knees broke, and the skin on his legs began to tear away and merge with the floor, becoming large, black swirling pools.

"_So…this is…it… I… die here?"_

The last thing Dante felt was his skull shatter. His eyes worked for a few seconds after his death. His last sight was his own blood on the floor.

"**So you prevail after all… I guess… I was just too weak. But the light is strong within you… You are worthy."**

Dante's body was now tumbling down through the air. Above him, he could see the room where he had "died"… the room inside his soul. He continued to fall through darkness and light, and passed out before he hit the bottom.

It lay flat on the floor, across from him, when he opened his eyes… Dante raised his head to get a better look at it; and it did the same. It was another reflection…

"_Damn it! How much must I suffer? I'll kill you all!"_

The rage was focused into a single punch. It soared through the air. A punch like that had the force to crush anything it came into contact with; shadow or not. But it did not cause the foe to perish. Instead, it was matched with another punch of equal force.

Dante was amazed at the foe's power and reflexes. And the foe seemed curious as well. Then Dante had an idea.

"_Try **this**!"_

Dante jumped onto the floor into a break dance. The other Dante did the same, with the same level of skill.

"_I knew it! Nobody can match my skills. You must be me."_

The familiar voice came unto him again.

"**Yes… You see now. This is your shadow. It knows only how to obey because you have conquered its darkness. You have overcome its will… I'm truly blessed to find someone appropriate enough for the power that consumed me. Use this 'Doppelganger' style well, Dante."**

"_Of course… two times the attack force. I can get used to this."_

Dante walked out of the same room where he had faced the Doppelganger originally. All "eyes" were on him, shining brightly. He then walked into the blue teleporting light that had waited for him all this time. He was now ready… to make Arkham face his shadow as well.

"**Follow your light Dante. It is not darkness, but light that creates a shadow."**


End file.
